Book lover’s life collection being sold to research the cancer that killed him
A large part of a Waimate book lover’s collection is being resold for research into the disease Peter Trainor died of this year.
Due to its size, the mammoth collection must be sold in stages, part one starts today at Timaru Booksellers with proceeds going towards pancreatic cancer research.
Bookshop owner Renee Rowland said part one of the sale will include 250 books, but promised, ‘‘this is only the beginning’’.
Trainor was a regular visitor of Rowland’s Timaru and Twizel bookshops. The pair first met five years ago, when he was in town for Twizel’s annual kayaking, cycling and running event, Hard Labour.
After conversing over books for halfa-decade, Trainor told Rowland he’d give her some books to sell in the Twizel Bookshop’s secondhand section when she was next in Waimate.
‘‘Well, I never made it to Waimate,’’ Rowland said.
Faithful to his word, Trainor’s family saw some books set aside when going through his possessions.
‘‘They found books with ‘Renee’ on them and thought they’d get in touch.’’
Two weeks ago, they contacted her, wondering what to do with the rest of the collection.
‘‘In the last week or so, I’ve been thinking about what can I do with them.’’
Rowland decided a second-hand sale was the winning idea, funnelling the money back to the family and towards more medical study of pancreatic cancer.
‘‘There’s always more research to be done.’’
It’s Rowland’s intention to keep these Saturday sales rolling through the coming weeks as she receives more of Trainor’s books.
His family were transporting the books up from Waimate by the car load.
Sorted by genre, today’s first sale consists of cookbooks, with names like Jaimie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey appearing in the piles, as well as art history, running and athletics books and biographies.
‘‘In the last week or so, I’ve been thinking about what can I do with them.’’
Renee Rowland Bookshop owner